It is a terrible format to run the Women FIDE candidates & the FIDE candidates at the same time.

@QathetMike said in #30:
> "There are no "men chess" as there are no tournaments where only men are allowed."
>
> False.

No, this is True. Hypothetically speaking, if there was a woman out there Let's Call her "Pauline Morphy"... and she is ultra strong like 3000 rated, and beat Magnus to that milestone! 0 people would stop her from competing for the world chess championship the same as any man. The World Chess Championship is open for men, and women, and children.

I don't believe there is any country that currently restricts women from playing chess or has "Men Only" tournaments where women could not enter if they had the ratings or title requirements.

Even places like Afghanistan, or Sudan or Somalia don't have "Men only" chess rules. Women are allowed to compete around the world.

@Frankieking7983 said in #31:
> No, this is True. Hypothetically speaking, if there was a woman out there Let's Call her "Pauline Morphy"... and she is ultra strong like 3000 rated, and beat Magnus to that milestone! 0 people would stop her from competing for the world chess championship the same as any man. The World Chess Championship is open for men, and women, and children.
>
> I don't believe there is any country that currently restricts women from playing chess or has "Men Only" tournaments where women could not enter if they had the ratings or title requirements.
>
> Even places like Afghanistan, or Sudan or Somalia don't have "Men only" chess rules. Women are allowed to compete around the world.

It was 2017 before Women were allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.
I could go on with very little effort to list many more countries and their out of date laws regarding women's rights.

here's a link to a article about the 18 countries in the world where a wife needs her husbands permission to get a job
www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/18-countries-where-women-need-their-husbands-permission-to-get-a-job/
bit of an old article, but you get the gist

Some countries have a ways to go,.

@I_am_lame said in #27:
> @mkubecek I know it is not very polite, but I will respond to your question with a question. Imagine creating a tournament where women are not allowed to participate, no matter how well they play. Would it be fine, would you call it a normal chess tournament? ;)
I would call it a tournament with limited access but I would still insist that what they are playing _is_ chess. Just like in any tournament where access is limited by age (from above or from below), by rating (again, from above or from below), by being member of a national federation, by being member of certain club... or e.g. any invitation only tournament. Would you say that Tata Steel was "not chess" just because neither of us (or rather noone except a handful of selected players) could simply come and play there? On recent PICF, there was even a special tournament for people working in banking sector (!), should we say that they weren't playing chess but "bankers chess"?

As for the "W-titles", as long as they are clearly distinguished by the "W" prefix, I have no problem with them. When I see "WGM", I know what does it mean, when I see "GM", I know what does it mean. What I find questionable are the "direct assignments" but those are not specific to women (only some of them, like Women World Champion getting the "GM" title automatically).

This is clearly men's chess appropriation.